I’m Chunks Corbett (really my name- don’t want to talk about it) and I’m hijacking the blog for today. Pastor Furtick is off at the C3 conference in Dallas and I’m ready to see this blog updated.
I’m the Executive Pastor at Elevation Church and I want to give all you church staff, members and planters a little taste of something we’ll be rolling out soon, but I can’t! Sorry, more to come…

This one’s not for the Lead Pastors out there; it’s for those of us serving under them. Pastors, you may want to forward this to your staff.

Top 3 ways to encourage your Pastor:

1. Acknowledge what’s important to them- What’s important to your Pastor isn’t just what’s important to him but rather what’s important to the church. As a staff member of a thriving church, my to-do list will always have an elevator that takes what’s important to Pastor to the top of that list. I know we are all busy and it’s important that the bills get paid, the volunteers get called, the stuff gets ordered; but to truly encourage your Pastor means to inspire and spur him on. Nothing does that more than keeping him from worrying about something he needs done and you’re the one to do it- even if you think it can wait. So don’t just acknowledge what’s important to them, make it important to you and take it off their plate. If you want to encourage your Pastor, take an idea they have and carry it to completion - deliver.

2. Honor vs. Respect- I’ve never met someone who was part of healthy church that would say they did not respect their Pastor- staff member or not. But do they really honor him as the man called to lead the Church? Respect is easy- you can give respect to a State Trooper writing you a ticket, but I’m talking about honor. Encourage your Pastor by honoring him- not the person but the position of Lead Pastor. Never let your Pastor ride in the backseat of a car, always say thank you and never miss a sermon. As staff members, we need to lead the way in this. The congregation won’t honor a Pastor that the staff doesn’t.

3. Bring solutions not problems- This one is from me and Mr. Jakes. Encourage your Pastor by bringing him solutions to the problems before he even knows about the problems. Re-read that if you need to. What is he supposed to do if the light board breaks or the post office lost the package? Don’t bring problems without a list of the top 3 ways to fix it and how you’ve already implemented the first course of action. It is encouraging for Lead Pastors to know that the ones serving under them are capable. If every problem needs to be solved by the Lead Pastor, then why does he need us?

So, there are my top 3 ways to encourage your Pastor. These are some of the ways we encourage our Pastor. I hope he doesn’t mind me sharing them with you.